Stripe for the picking: Edwardian shirtwaist #1

Bit of a teaser, this post. I haven’t got much done bar cutting out, interfacing, and attaching one gathered piece to another, but thought I’d give you a little teaser.

Reconstructing History #950, Edwardian shirtwaist [a blouse by any other name] in [a] scissor print cotton in two colourways, shown above, and [b] black and white striped cotton. There are two options on this for the back, so I went with one of each, and I decided I really, really need a shirt with eye-boggling stripes, so they are cut in three directions. Or four… It does ‘wow’ and wobble your eyeballs, but I neeeeeeeeeeeed it so there!

Anyway, both are cut out, the cuffs, collars and upper sleeves are all interfaced, ad I gathered up one side piece and attached it to the front yoke. The pattern instructions are not very clear [a standard problem with RH, although I don’t mind] so I used an ‘old-fashioned’ method to attach that right angled yoke- instead of sewing right sides together, you just press the seam allowance under and then mount it over the gathered edge. I wanted neat gathers, as there is a lot of fabric there, so I ‘stroked’ them into place with a pin. This is another historical method.

I need to unpick a bit of excess machine basting, but I rather like this insanely stripey effect so far.

What do you think? [Any epileptic fits induced by this shirt are NOT my fault!]

In other news, I finished my corset, it fits, and I’m happy…but I don’t like the pink binding after all so it has to come off before you see it. Sigh.

Thanks, that would be great. I’m always looking for an easy or foolproof way to do these things. Gathers are my particular bugbear. I hate doing them as they often get caught up or are uneven. I’m just a bodger at heart.

I don’t mind gathers- although the eighties and all those foofy net petticoats nearly did for me! The knack is giving it all a good tug perpendicular to the gathering thread to even it out before stitching